This booklet is not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of all the
ferns—some 70 species—which have been found to date in Hawaii National
Park. Rather it is an illustrated guide to the more abundant species
which may be seen by the visitor without wandering far from the beaten
path. Abundance has been used as the basis for arrangement, instead of
scientific classification, and illustrations take the place of technical
descriptions. The more serious observers are referred to the selected
bibliography near the end of this publication.
Some disagreement exists today among botanists as to the proper
scientific names for certain Hawaiian plant species, and many ferns have
been undergoing reclassification. For this reason all of the scientific
names that could be found for the various ferns in this booklet have
been listed on pages 37, 38 and 39.
A brief code has been included to indicate the type of habitat in which
the ferns normally may be found: D=dry, M=moist, D&M=dry and moist.
Numbers in bold-face type are used for that particular fern throughout
the publication. The page numbers refer to the location of the text and
the scientific name for that species.
One inch squares are used for background scale in many of the
illustrations.
All photographs are by the author unless otherwise credited.